tracing steps with you
by Twilander
Summary: When Bella Black finds herself transported to the 17th century during her honeymoon, she can't believe it at first. Yet it turns out that despite new threats and unknown dangers, it's not quite as bad as she would have thought - mostly thanks to local warrior Edward McCullen...
1. Chapter 1

tracing steps with you

Dawn is breaking; dew is covering the heaps of stones around them as well as the high tree trunks towering like giants. It's almost magical, Bella thinks, like in the old tales of faeries and monsters. She thinks she can see wisps of light hiding in the shadows of dark roots and hear soft, alluring tittering from the tree tops.

They'll have to get back soon. They shouldn't even be here this time of the night. Yes, the quaint Scottish village they've booked for their honeymoon is sleepy and peaceful, but the surrounding grave mounds and forests are a tourist hotspot – forbidden to enter after nightfall.

"Stop it..." Bella exclaims when Jacob whistles at the moon disappearing between the first rays of sunlight. "You're not a wolf." She smirks and her groom laughs.

"How do you know?" he answers, traipsing around the mounds, turning off the flashlight in his hand. Soon it will be morning, and with golden sunrays, the magic will vanish. The world will return to its grey-tinged tristesse.

Bella still isn't quite sure this whole marriage was the right decision. But he's always been the only guy who paid her any attention in her dad's rotten hometown, and hey, he's better than nothing. And she likes him. She really does. He makes her laugh occasionally and he's tall, dark, and handsome. Bella's a lucky girl. She really is.

"We should go," she tells him, "don't want them to catch us." The first caretakers of the forest-park-thing would arrive soon and they definitely wouldn't take kindly to a young couple trespassing by night.

Jacob just shrugs. There's a brand new TV in their hotel room and she knows he's been itching to try it out. "Yeah, all right. One more mound and we'll leave."

Bella assumes that's the best she'll get, so when she reluctantly shrugs, Jacob is already running over another hill. She follows him and when she reaches the top, she inhales sharply.

It's huge. It's beautiful. It's eerie.

Jacob senses it as well, it seems; he's stopped right next to her and looks down.

It's nothing like Stonehenge, but this stone circle could stand its own in a fight to the death between stone circles. Some stones have fallen over, covered in moss and mushrooms, and the half-light illuminates it in an otherworldly blue tinge. Grass doesn't seem to grow near it. The cacophony of early birdsong that has followed them so far has suddenly fallen silent. There are groups of small bones clustered on the stones, and Bella prays those are a goat's bones or a sheep's.

But the strangest thing is the faint whispering coming from its center, drawing her forward even when Jacob, sweating, tries to grab her hand and pull her back. She swats his hand away and moves forward with a purpose, although she doesn't know what it is, exactly.

Jacob's voice cracks but she doesn't even hear him over the blood rushing in her head. She steps forward again. The moss makes soft noises beneath her feet and a single red ray of sunlight falls on the heart of the stone circle. Another step forward and she's standing inside the circle. Bella is distantly aware of Jacob running after her but pausing; she is drawn to that single ray of sunlight and gingerly steps forward.

Then she can't hear anything anymore. She goes blind and deaf and numb and when she closes her eyes, she doesn't open them again for a long, long time.

* * *

It's noon by the time she wakes up. She's lying in the middle of the stone circle and feels as if she's just been hit by a rocket launcher. In fact, several rocket launchers. And two tanks. And a few assorted pills for good measure.

She tries to sit up and wavers, but somehow manages to succeed. The sun is shining brightly and there's not a single person in sight. The trees around her are looking a bit different, she notices, but still there's no birds singing, although she's sure they should be singing.

"Hello?" Bella calls out. Silence is the only answer she receives. Her throat is parched and this is worse than the morning after she'd had a whiskey (a whole bottle of whiskey, it should be noted) and had lain in bed for at least seven hours, nursing a spectacular hangover.

It's a miracle but somehow, she manages to stand up without falling. She staggers out of the stone circle.

"Jacob?" she calls, but somehow in her heart, she knows he's far, far away. She climbs the hill and there's nobody around. Not a single tourist. Nothing. Nobody.

"Hello?" she calls out again and grows uneasier with every passing moment. She climbs down the hill and another, and another, and another.

Civilization has vanished. Birds have begun to sing again and small creatures shuffle beneath the leaves covering the ground, but there are no sounds of humans.

Somehow, Bella ends up in a small clearing. She remembers that clearing. It's where the tickets for the burial mound landscape were being sold. Now, there's nothing.

She sits down and cries. Something has happened; she doesn't know what; it scares her to death. Bella sniffles and then decides that she can't give up just yet. She'll find something. Someone. Then, she looks up, and it's as if the air's knocked out of her.

There is someone. He's tall and pale and he's got dark hair. He stands in the shadow of an old, huge tree; almost invisible, shrouded in this hidden spot. His appearance is strange, alien, somehow more mysterious than the stone circle. His clothes look old, but not worn; in fact, ancient. Bella never paid much attention in history class but that is renaissance fair stuff. Who wears a kilt these days? But somehow, it's not a bad look on the man. She doubts anything could look bad on him. His cheekbones are high and as pronounced as his jawline; his hair seems to shimmer; his eyes... his eyes...

He's watching her.

Her heart flutters.

"Who-" she begins. The man turns around and vanishes.

Bella sits on the hard ground for another few moments. By then, the appearance has turned to a dreamlike feeling in her gut. She isn't even sure if he was real or just a figment of her desperation. She gets up and starts walking.

* * *

By the time her eyes see something akin to civilization, it's almost twilight. Not that this sprawling village in the shadow of a grey, looming castle could qualify as civilization in her books. It looks as if it's from another century. The first person apart from the dreamlike creature she meets is a woman of middleish age, thick around the waist and with laugh lines etched into her face; her shaggy brown hair is bound back and she carries a wooden basket from the forest Bella has emerged from as well. "Who're you, gal," the woman greets her, and there's suspicion shining in small eyes, "never seen you before around here. And what're you wearing?"

Bella could ask the woman the very same question – she, too, looks like she either just escaped from the renaissance fair or from the set of a movie called _The Black Plague – Medieval Times suck_. Bella's wearing skinny jeans and a white cotton shirt with the words 'You've cat to be kitten me right meow' printed on it, as well as a tight blue jacket. The shirt is a wedding present from her father. Sometimes she really doesn't know what's going on in that man's head. Anyways, there's really nothing unusual about this outfit.

"Yeah. I dunno either. My dad thought it'd be funny. He's a bit strange sometimes."

The woman looks at her as if she's a particularly complex physics lesson. Somehow, it doesn't lessen her suspicion.

"Where'd you left your skirt?" the woman asks. They arrive at the outskirts of the village, and Bella sees more and more people clothed this strangely. She starts to feel somehow out of place. (She doesn't feel out of time, though. Not yet.) She crosses her arms in front of her chest.

"I don't like wearing skirts," she merely states. The woman narrows her eyes.

"Where you from where they don't wear skirts?" The Scottish accent is thick; thicker than Bella's ever heard before.

"Forks," Bella replies curtly. Then, suddenly, there's a man grabbing her arm.

"Abigail, who's this?" he asks the woman walking with her, who looks relieved. The man – rather, boy – is tall and as pretty as a girl, with red hair and a tuft of beard and – he's wearing a kilt as well.

"I'm Bella S- Bella Black," she replies instead of the woman. "I'm from Forks if you wanna know that too and please let go of my arm."

The boy looks at her closer. He can't be older than sixteen. "You're not from here?" he asks. Bella shakes her head, slightly exasperated. She just said that!

"She could be a spy," the woman tells him. He nods abruptly.

"You're coming with me," he tells her and drags her along. She yelps, and he lets go, casting his eyes down in a silent apology. Bella shrugs. Fine, she'll go with him, but only because she has no other idea where to go.

Except to find that man with the dark hair and pale skin. She wouldn't mind finding him.

* * *

"Thank you, Jamie," says an old bearded man in a grey room. The sunlight stops right in front of his window and it's unusually dark, unusually damp in the room. He eyes her much with the same suspicion the other people have so far presented her with. It only makes Bella want to raise her head higher and stand straighter. "You may leave." The boy bows and vanishes. Bella regrets it. He's quite young, but she bets he's got a ton of village girls admiring him. Besides, he seemed the kindest of all the people she's met so far.

The door closes behind Jamie. Bella has to face the old man, who introduces himself as Colum MacKenzie, alone. Her dad is a policeman, and she knows interrogations, but she's never seen such a thorough one. The man wants to know everything about her. She tells him freely enough: her origin, her name, her friends, her education, her reason for being in Scotland, and then even Jacob, and that she's sorry for staying in the burial mounds park after dark, she really is, and if he's got a phone she could use?

It turns out that surprisingly, Mr Renaissance Fair here in his ancient castle does not own a phone. Or a fax. Or one of these computers Bella's dad sometimes uses at work. When she asks to send a letter to the United States, he looks at her as if she's asked him to cross-dress and dance the hula in front of her.

Instead, he tells her that he suspects her to be an English spy. She points at her decidedly American accent. He doesn't trust her. She tells him that she just started studying medicine and that she really needs to get in touch with her husband.

"I have neither heard of you, Bella Black, nor of this Jacob Black. Your name and your clothes are very foreign. I would like to believe you, but..."

Bella doesn't like his tone, vaguely threatening and menacing, and she decides to interrupt him. "You're in pain, right? Your joints are swollen. Gout. It's worse when the weather's bad. I can help you. Not well, obviously, since I doubt you got any vic, but I believe there's some adequate substitutes I can help you with. Just let me contact my dad, all right?"

The man – MacKenzie – looks at her completely dumbfounded. Then he nods, seemingly to himself, and calls another man's name. A tall man, wearing a kilt (Bella isn't even surprised about the fashion choices around here anymore) enters and takes her arm. He's far rougher than Jamie's been. Bella instantly decides she can't stand him.

"Listen – Miss Bella Black – I do not know what you are doing here, but it cannot be well. You are presenting too many questions. Too few answers. There are only two possibilities how you could know of my... painful... situation."

One, Bella thinks. I'm a professional.

"You are either an especially foolish English spy or a witch." The man who's holding her arm gasps audibly. Bella rolls her eyes.

"Seriously?" she asks him. "Witchcraft? This is 1989, you know. I think even you Europeans got over that whole burning innocent women thing a few hundred years ago."

MacKenzie looks at her from shrouded eyes. "1989," he repeats her words slowly. Bella feels as if there's a joke in the room, but neither of them has quite understood it yet. "The year1989, you mean?"

Bella shrugs as far as the tight grip on her arm allows her to. She's starting to shiver in her shirt and thin jacket, in the drafty castle. Then she nods.

"You are mistaken, Miss. We have just celebrated the beginning of the seventeen-hundred thirty-ninth year after the birth of our Lord and Savior."

Bella blinks. MacKenzie says "To the cells!" and the man who's holding her proceeds to drag her away. Bella complains, and not quietly, but he doesn't seem to care.

* * *

The boy named Jamie comes by the cells later. They talk for a while. His voice is pleasantly soft, but Bella feels like crying, and after a few minutes, he tells her that they want to put her on trial. It's very possible, he says, that she'll be dead by the end of it. Bella doesn't expect she can call a lawyer. Jamie seems to feel guilty – even though it wasn't truly his fault she ended up in this situation. She asks him to keep his eyes open for her husband, although when she tries to describe Jacob, he looks far less like Jacob and far more like the mysterious stranger she's seen. Jamie promises.

After he leaves, Bella lies awake for the longest time. The cells are dark and ugly, the ground hard and cold beneath her. They've given her a flea-ridden, coarse blanket, but it does nothing to keep out the moist cold that's seeping into her bones. The walls of the cell are just as harsh as the ground. They look as if they've been standing for a hundred thousand years and will be standing for a hundred thousand more. That's a depressing thought.

Bella stares at the faint flicker of a torch around the corner. Sometimes she can hear the warden coughing or shuffling his feet. Sometimes she can hear other inmates, but can never see them. One seems to be scratching at the walls with his fingernails. Another mumbles incoherent words. Her eyelids droop despite the horrible cold.

Bella doesn't want to die here. She thinks about everything she left in 1989. There's her mom's old dog, the amazing place at her college, her brand new CDs and video tapes, the truck dad bought her as a wedding gift (to make up for his horrible shirt), the trees she used to climb as a child, the high school she never wants to see anymore either way, the... she thinks about wind on her cheeks and warm tea and cotton candy on her tongue and the way an old friend once played the piano for her. She thinks about bonfire in summers and thick blankets of snow in winters. She thinks about all those small things that made her life better.

She does not want to die, not here in this unknown, unforgiving place; she does not want to die.

When she finally falls asleep, it's only after she's cried for hours.

* * *

Bella doesn't notice the new day beginning; there's no window in her small cell. It could be any time of the day when she wakes. She's confused for a few moments until the memories rush back, and then she's confused of what woke her. There's still the faint sounds of inmates and the warden and the mouldy smell of too much humidity in a too small cellar. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Until a shadow is detached from the wall. In Bella's cell. She brings her hands up to her knees and tries to stand wobbily, the disgusting blanket wrapped around her shoulders like a superhero's coat. There's almost to no light in the dark cellar.

"Who're you," Bella whispers. Her throat is hoarse. "Why are you here." It's such a cliché thing to say, but it never fit a situation better than this.

The stranger breathes audibly. "You're from 1989?" His accent is strange. Stranger than that of the other people she's met so far. The voice is dark and deep and the shiver that runs through Bella's spine is not caused by the cold. She raises her head.

"I asked first."

The stranger doesn't seem to react at first. For a moment, Bella thinks he has vanished again. Maybe he's only a hallucination, or she's still dreaming? Maybe all of this is just a bad, realistic dream. Maybe Jacob is making fun of her and this is all a very elaborate ploy. Maybe...

"Edward," the stranger says quietly. "Edward McCullen." She nods curtly, although she's aware he probably can't see it.

"I asked second," he reminds her. Bella is slightly startled. She steps back and a wisp of air tells her he's following her.

"Yeah. I'm from 1989. I was on my-" Somehow, she doesn't want McCullen to know she's married. "-vacation, and then I found this stone circle, and then I woke up here. Yesterday. Today. A few hundred years in the future. I don't know."

"You should be dangerous with such words," McCullen answers. "It sounds like magic. Witchcraft."

Bella stares at the ground for a moment.

"I'm fucked either way," she murmurs. McCullen draws in a breath sharply.

"I've seen you before," he says. His voice is monotone and strangely lulling, yet her body is on edge. It's as if it's unsure if she should trust this man unquestionably or be scared of him. A part of her wants to reach out and drown in his words; another wants to cower in fear. Instead of doing either, she merely cocks her eyebrow.

"Oh?"

"When I was younger. I was a child. You saved me."

Bella can't remember ever saving a child.

"But you were older. You're so young. Bella."

"How do you know my name?" she asks and instinctively steps back. Yet again, McCullen follows her. She can see the curves of his face casting shadows and can hear the sound of his breath.

"That stone circle... you need to go back there. It is a kind of... door into other eras. But only when it is touched by the first light of the day."

Bella shakes her head. "I can't go back. They want to put me on trial."

The stranger breathes again, and sighs, and then it's silent in her cell again.

Bella says, after a while, a murmured "Edward?" but she receives no answer.

* * *

The sun is harsh on the day Bella Black neé Swan will die. Jamie has come back once more and has told her he hasn't been able to locate her husband. Bella isn't surprised. They drag her out in the castle's courtyard and put her in front of the man MacKenzie she met; and three other old men. All of them have beards. She's being sat down on a wooden chair and tied to it, with two warriors next to her – as if she could even overpower one of them – and the four old men gazing at her.

She's asked series of questions Bella feels she's answered a thousand times already. Where is she from, what's her name, her age, why she decided to spy for the redcoats. Half the population has come to watch the spectacle, it seems to her; they're crowding the place, dirty people with bad teeth and bad breath yelling. Children run around, but only a few. The people seem old in a way Bella never thought possible, and there's too many women.

Her trial is not going well. By noon, all seems to be said and done. The verdict, MacKenzie announces, will be given in another hour. Bella is left to sit on the chair, her guardians by her side. She starts to count her remaining seconds and wonders if she'll die for being a witch or a spy. It doesn't matter in the end, but if she could choose, she'd want to be hanged for being a spy instead of burnt for being a witch. That sounds less painful and way more awesome. In a macabre way.

The sun is laughing at her, but still she's freezing. It's at its zenith and Bella knows she'll never see it set again.

She doesn't know how much time has passed when horns are blaring through the air. The people who watched her trial have long since started with their usual tasks again, bustling about the yard, many with baskets full of food in their hands; and they're loud. But nothing is louder than those horns tearing through the world. One man rushes past her, and then more, and the women start to vanish into buildings. Bella asks one of the men standing next to her what is going on.

"Attack," one of them says through clenched teeth. "The English. Your friends."

Bella rolls her eyes. "Will you let me go hide?" The warrior doesn't even deign to look at her.

Then, the two are called to battle; they leave Bella behind. Still, she's bound to the chair with tight ropes and doesn't think she can escape any time soon. She prays the battle will rage outside the thick castle walls and don't spill inside.

Of course, since she doesn't seem to have a single iota of luck these days, that's exactly what happens. The great gate of the castle is broken through by fighting men; she feels like in a History Channel Special, only that much more immersed. She can hear the blood spilling on the dirty ground and can hear the dying screams of desperate boys.

They're going to kill her. Rape her and torture her and kill her. That's what happens to spoils of war like her, isn't it.

The battle moves to the place she's still sitting. She doesn't have much of a choice and tries to block out all the violent smells, sounds and sights. She even closes her eyes and when a hand touches hers, she suppresses a yelp. Then, as quick as that, her hands are free. She turns around and sees the mysterious man from the clearing. Her breath catches in her throat.

"Bella," he says, covered in blood from his pale cheeks to his kilt.

"Hide." She knows that voice.

And that's what she does. It's a miracle, but she evades all blows, all stabs, all bullets, and she arrives on the other side of the castle. There's a small door here, and she knows she could just – open it – vanish through – find the stone circle and leave this awful place behind. Her hand's on the huge wooden door. She pushes. Outside of the castle, there's endless rolling meadows, and she can see the forest in the distance, huge looming pine trees, dark green with the promise of safety.

Bella looks back. The clanking of swords is more subdued now. Edward is right in the middle. Has that been his own blood? She worries her lower lip between her teeth. Can she really leave him there? What if he dies? He just saved her life, in two ways. She can't just leave him to die.

Bella closes the door again. She sits on the ground and starts to count to a hundred.

When she arrives at one thousand two hundred and three, the sounds of the fighting are dying down. Then, the silence is only interrupted by the last breaths of dying men and the moans of the wounded. Bella runs over to the scene of the battle. It doesn't take her long to find Edward, lying on the ground, blood trickling through his dark hair. Her hand sweeps over that hair.

Not many men are still alive, but the gate at the front of the castle is closed again, so Bella assumes it's a victory for the Scottish. Rather, it means the Scottish women and children will live another day.

Bella lowers her gaze from the sky back down to Edward. She turns him around; the blood is caking his whole body, but Bella instantly sees that very little of it is his. She begins checking for wounds and finds only one large gash on his head; a few bruises, judging by the way he groans when she presses down on certain spots. Possibly a cracked rib. No; the worst problem is the head wound. She takes a dagger she finds sheathed in his belt and tears off a part of her shirt until she only wears 'You've cat to be kitten me' without meow. She uses the cloth to clean the wound from blood, sweat and grime; and is rewarded with a bright crimson gash. She's been training to be a doctor. She remembers such wounds from her textbooks and gets to work, ignoring the way her heart is hammering in her chest.

When she can't do anything else for Edward, the castle's inhabitants start filing out. Bella spots a small, thin woman kneeling down by one of the fallen warriors. She's wearing the same sense of determination Bella would see if she were to look into a mirror right now.

"Hey! Lady!" she calls out and thank God, the woman looks up. "Do you have a hos- a place for your sick to stay? This guy needs help." The woman joins her. She takes one look at Edward.

"Yes, indeed," she says, her soft voice belying the hard tone. "A good work you have done here. I shall bring help." She stands again and turns.

"I'm Bella," Bella says. The woman smiles at her, even though it's tired.

"Alice." With that, she waves at a few more women, and within moments, the yard is bustling again. The dying breaths are replaced by sobs of people who're recognizing friends and family, but Bella doesn't listen to that anymore. Alice has taken Edward away and Bella feels helpless, so she kneels down by the side of the next Scotsman.

It's dark by the time the last wounded have been taken care of, amongst them Englishmen as well. It will be dawn by the time all the fallen will have been buried, Bella knows, but when the sun sets, she sits by the side of Edward in a small, cramped building, along with the other wounded.

She doesn't take her eyes off him.

* * *

The next day, her trial is taken up again. Bella can't believe it at first. She's barely slept, tending to Edward and the others in the makeshift sick bay, but is dragged outside when the first cock cries. Yet Alice is not far behind her, and she whispers something into the ear of one of the old men, who raises his hand and performs a complicated gesture. The other old men start animatedly talking to each other. They look as bone-tired as Bella feels, and MacKenzie is sporting a bruise covering half of his face.

She wonders if he could have fought with his men; the gout must make it difficult.

Alice touches her shoulder lightly before vanishing again.

Bella is ruled innocent. Nobody is more surprised than she is. The men get up one after the other; MacKenzie shoots her a dirty look, but it seems he's been overruled; and the man Alice spoke to comes to talk to her. Bella isn't on a chair anymore, and there's no more watchers this early in the morning, so they're alone.

"You saved Edward," the man states. Bella shrugs. The man looks vaguely familiar to her.

"Dunno. I couldn't do much."

"Alice claims he would not be alive anymore without your aid."

Bella looks down at the ground. She shrugs again. "It's what everyone would have done." Although not everyone would have given up their chance for freedom for a man she barely knows. "And besides, that was only First Aid. Anyone with a license could've done that."

The man looks at her with that same look somewhere between suspicion and confusion she's grown used to receiving.

"Nevertheless," he says, "you saved a true Scotsman, and what's more, a man I consider my son. Thank you, Miss."

She tries for a lopsided smile. It comes out beaming and genuine.

* * *

Bella tells herself that she'll try to get back to her own time as soon as Edward's well again. She sits by his side every day during the convalescence. He wakes later the day of her trial, and she thanks him for setting her free.

That's when he smiles at her for the first time.

She helps the other soldiers as well. She's not well-versed in Scottish history, but she assumes they're fighting for their freedom and all that, and freedom is good, right? So it's not bad if she nurses poor men back to health.

Most of them succumb to their wounds either way. They are beyond help; certainly beyond Bella's help, lacking any medicinal equipment or even over-the-counter medicine. She desperately misses the 20th century luxuries, but when she turns to look over her shoulder and sees Edward McCullen staring at her, she blushes furiously and doesn't think she wants to be anywhere else.

The boy Jamie is there as well. He looks horrible, but he is quick to heal, and he starts joking with her as soon as he regains his speech. His curls are flattened, but his spirit is not. He's cute, in a boyish way, like a younger brother, and Bella likes spending time with him.

A slow friendship forms between her and Alice, who, as it turns out, is not only the daughter of the man who considers Edward his son, but also a person most similar to a doctor in this place. She runs the makeshift hospital, and next to the soldiers, there's also actual sick people here. The work is hard but meaningful, and Alice eats with Bella every day, so it's not too bad. Alice gives her old clothing from her mother Esme and teaches her how a proper lady is to be behaved.

Bella misses her father. She wonders what Jacob is doing. Is the police looking for her? Maybe they even suspect him to have murdered her? Whenever she thinks about Jacob, she starts biting her lips nervously, as if she's somehow letting him down. Her wedding ring is on her finger, so there's no reason for her to feel guilty, she argues.

It's the eleventh day after the huge battle when Edward is fit to stand and walk again. The wound on his head has hindered his movements, but now he insists on walking again. Bella only reluctantly lets him go. She knows that back home, he would've been kept in the hospital for supervision for at least another week – head wounds can become very serious very fast.

"Well," she says, "will you go off and fight again?" They're standing by the building's only window, a high glass pane that seems like it once belonged in a church. Bella can't stand the thought of him going off and getting himself killed.

He looks like he wants to say something, but then glances down at her hands and closes his mouth. Instead, what he says is a simple and clear, "Yes. It is my duty."

She looks down. There's nothing she can do about that, then. Bella shrugs. "Fine then, go and get yourself killed, see if I care."

That gets her a smile from Edward, and that in turn causes Bella to smile as well.

"I wanted to ask you one thing," Edward says. His voice is low. "Will you come to the stone circle with me? Just once."

Bella nods before her brain has fully registered the question.

* * *

They begin their walk in the early hours of the evening. Edward has procured a donkey and Bella rides it reluctantly. She falls down a few times, but isn't surprised. Horse riding really isn't her thing. The donkey is patient, though, as is Edward, and when they reach the forest, Bella starts talking about her home. Edward believes her; she trusts him. He listens wide-eyed to her stories. He doesn't really understand radio or computers, but he says he'd love to see electricity. When they arrive at the stone circle, the donkey shies and Edward helps Bella descend. Together they stand in front of it just when the first rays of sunlight touch the ancient stones.

"You want to return?" Edward asks nonchalantly. "To your cars and radios and planes?"

Bella nods. They don't look at each other but instead stare at those inconspicuous stones.

"I want to." Bella turns to look at him and takes his hand carefully. Edward doesn't move. "Do you want to come with me?"

"You have got a husband." he replies, and Bella kisses him.

It's beautiful. She feels like she's flying, able to take on the whole world, or at least one continent. His lips are chapped and taste like pine cones.

"No," she states and hears how he breathes in sharply.

"I can't come with you," he replies and she steps back. Her heart is beating fast. She can't leave him here. She can't just... she can't.

"It is my duty to stay here."

"You will die!" she says and her voice is loud. "I know my history, Edward! Scotland will become a part of the United Kingdom and stay that way for a long, long time! Any rebellion is doomed to fail!"

Edward winces. "Still. I have a duty to these people. They took me in when I would have died otherwise. I owe them my life."

"I saved you too," Bella says. She can't believe how heartbroken she sounds.

"Stay here with me," Edward pleads with her. "One year. No more. Then we can go."

"Home?" Bella asks, and she hates the hope that's blooming in her chest.

Edward is still breathing. He's gorgeous, Bella thinks suddenly, with the bright orange sunlight catching in his hair, haloing him like a heavenly creature.

"Yes. Home. My home. My father built this stone circle. Will you come with me?"

Bella has never been a history nerd – but she knows that stone circles were built long before the year zero.

She merely looks at Edward, speechless, before she finds her words.

"Edward," she asks, "where are you from? _When_ are you from?"

He looks at her from eyes infinitely ancient.

"I do not know when I was born. Two thousand years before this Christ the people of this castle keep talking about. Maybe three or four."

He's old, Bella thinks, but she hadn't realized just _how ancient_ he really is.

Suddenly, she's afraid – his lips were so soft – she begins to run and touches the light in the stone circle, and then there's nothing.

* * *

To Be Continued


	2. Chapter 2

When she wakes, there's a dog lapping at her temple. Voices are close to it, and Bella shoots up, but the dog's tail is wagging and it tries to climb all over her to continue lapping at her face. She can't help herself and laughs while trying to make it stop.

"There she is!" she hears someone yell. She looks up to see a policeman, a torch in his hand and a walkie-talkie in the other. "Found her, everyone to the old stone circle immediately." Bella tries to stand up despite the frantic attempts of the dog to show her how much it loves her; she succeeds and shakes the policeman's hand. He offers her a blanket.

"Are you Bella Black?"

She hesitates a moment before nodding. That life feels so very far away. "Yeah. I can't remember- I just blacked out."

The man nods. "You have been missing for three days. Your husband has been worried. Come, we'll get you home."

It doesn't take them long to get to the hotel the policeman had mistaken for home. The dog yaps at her one last time as she is escorted into the building. "Call a hospital if anything happens, and call us if you remember anything." She'll also have to come to the station the next day, but those are procedures she knows well from her father's work. She smiles at the policeman and finds herself in Jacob's arms only a few moments later; he drags her into their room and she can feel him sob against her.

"Now, now..." she murmurs lowly, unsure how to react to such emotional vulnerability. "Nothing's happened to me. Everything's well." He sobs again, then lets go of her to take a step back and look at her closely. She doesn't want to know how she looks; with twigs and mud and the smell of the 17th century sticking to her skin, she's certain only of one thing: it's not pretty.

"Are you sure," he asks her, worried, and Bella nods.

"Let me take a bath first, Jacob, then we can talk."

* * *

She thanks civilization for the invention of running hot water and soaks in the glorious honeymoon tub far longer than is decent. Her thoughts swirl around in her head, frantic at first and lazier the longer she lies in the water. She bolted; she ran from Edward. And why? Just because he is from a different time. That doesn't make him any less human. (Unless, of course, he is in fact a descendant of aliens which have landed on Earth in prehistoric times, but Bella decides to keep that thought in the back instead of the forefront of her mind.) Indeed, it does not negate any of the positive qualities she has experienced with him. Edward is kind and she feels safe around him, even on a battlefield; at the same time, seeing him excites her endlessly and she figures she will not never get enough of his presence.

She lets herself float deeper into the water. And now he is in the 17th century and she is back in the 20th. She can try to find him again, that much is true, but who assures her that the stone circle will send her back to the correct time? If Edward spoke the truth about where – or when – he came from, then the stone circle has different eras and – she really doesn't want to risk ending up in three thousand B.C. or worse, like Edward, go to the future and not understand a single thing.

A plan forms in her mind, and it is a bad plan – full of risks and highly unethical. But it will be her only chance to see Edward again and at least apologize for the way she ran from him: he has not deserved that, not in the least.

Jacob initially insists that they leave for the States at once, but Bella protests, citing the fact she still has to tell the police everything she remembers. She won't, of course. They'll think her mad and lock her up, and they would be justified too, because Bella would have to be mad to tell them the truth. Instead, she stays with her story of having blacked out, and although the police do not learn more, it makes sense that she would collapse at one spot and later reappear there. No doubt they'll mull over it with their psychologists for a few weeks, but Bella plans to be out of here long before that.

It's dark when she and Jacob are sneaking back to the forest. "This is the worst idea you've ever had," he protested when she first told him of her plan. "Finding out what happened to you by going back there, Bella? It can't end well." However, she told him to bring his gun, and they both felt safe with that thing on his hip, even in the dark. Bella just hopes the police aren't combing the area anymore, but it seems that for once in her life, she's lucky. When they arrive, the stones look innocent and inconspicuous, as if they were just a heap of lifeless forms, when in truth they are so much more. Bella imagines them as magical beings, shaped from Edward's family's hands to draw her to him, and she touches one reverently.

She knows they'll have to wait until sunrise, but Jacob doesn't know that, so she just sits down on one of the smaller stones and watches him as he walks around the circle, looking for clues. There won't be any, unless he suddenly develops a keen sense for magic, she knows, but it keeps him occupied until she hears the first birds singing.

"I think there's something!" she cries out suddenly. Jacob rushes to her side, and together they walk into the center of the circle. A shiver runs over Bella's spine; it's as if she can hear the stones whispering to her, drawing her back into a different time, their magic palpable in the air, soft against her cheeks. She closes her eyes and takes Jacob's hand, and the first ray of sunlight blinds her, and then all goes dark.

Jacob's still unconscious when she wakes. They're in the stone circle, but the air is fresher and the moss greener than before; that's why Bella knows they made it back to the past. Which past, now – that's the other question. It can't be too far, she notices as she watches the stones. Some are fallen over and covered with strange forest plants, and the others are all in the position she remembers them.

"Jacob," she calls softly until he wakes up, and then they begin walking. Bella still doesn't tell him about where they've landed: she doesn't know herself, and besides, she's sure he'll figure it out soon enough. Strangely, though, Jacob doesn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary, even when they pass where a souvenir shop should stand and instead, there's nothing. He's holding his head as if he's in pain. Perhaps some people don't deal with time-travelling so well? The thought almost makes Bella laugh. Time-travelling. She's tricked her husband into time-travelling with her. Ludicrous. She just hopes he'll be aware enough if they run into danger to draw his gun.

They don't run into danger, but they do run into the village Bella remembers a few hours later. She feels her face split open in a wide beam. The era can't be too wrong, then! Edward must be around here somewhere! She's almost with him again! She yearns to break into a run, but Jacob next to her still seems weak. They paused for a whole hour on the way, drinking and eating what Bella had wisely brought, and he's still not completely recovered.

"That's not our car," he complains when his eyes, too, fall onto the village. "Bella, just admit we're lost."

"We're not! We're right where we're supposed to be! Look at the castle." she tells him, and Jacob does, his eyes growing wide.

"That looks like... it's so... where are we, Bella?" he asks her, obviously confused. She shrugs, and they descend to the village together. Bella has been clever enough to wear a long skirt today (the only one she owns) and a long-sleeved shirt, but she knows the two of them won't fit in nevertheless.

It's Alice she sees first, and the sight makes her want to her cry from the overwhelming relief she feels. Bella breaks into a run, prompting Jacob to follow her, and embraces Alice, who seems surprised to see her but just as happy. Bella draws back to look at her and notices she looks older.

"B... Bella?" Alice asks, obviously uncertain. Bella nods eagerly. "But you... we thought you... it's been ten years, why are you still..." Bella draws a deep breath. Not quite so close to the right time, then.

"I'll explain it later. Alice, where's Edward? We need to speak." Alice blushes fiercely and Bella wonders why, and takes her hand.

"He's..." she begins, but stops when Jacob appears at Bella's side, one hand protectively on her shoulder. "Who's that?" Alice says simultaneously with Jacob, both questions directed at Bella.

"Oh! Right, introductions, you two don't know each other. Alice, this is Jacob! Remember, my husband I was looking for! And Jacob, this is Alice. She's a healer and a good friend and a good person." Alice tries to curtsy, but suspicion still shines in her eyes. The three of them walk to Alice's home. The way there is strange to Bella, different from what she remembers – there are fewer people around, some huts seem deserted, the shadow of the castle is longer than ever, and the perpetual cries of children cannot be heard, neither the birdsong she had grown so used to. The village seems lost, in a way, and the thought scares her into gripping Jacob's arm tightly.

"What is going on, Bella," he asks, but she shakes her head.

"I'll explain later. Just... trust me for now," she begs, and Jacob does.

They enter after Alice. There's a handsome blond man sitting at a round table – Bella doesn't know him, but judging from the way Alice greets him, they are very close. When Alice introduces him, Bella only hears "Jasper" - after that, her concentration is swayed elsewhere. Jasper is not the only person in the room. Next to him sits Edward. Their gazes meet, Bella begins to grin widely, and Edward looks as if he's just been hit by a grenade. He doesn't seem to have aged one day.

Next to him sits a woman, and she is holding his hand.

Bella feels the color leaving her face. There's a small gold band wrapped around Edward's left ring finger.

"You're married?" are the first words she speaks to him.

"Bella-" Edward begins as he stands up, but something in Bella's expression renders him speechless. They merely stare at each other.

"Hi, I'm Jacob?" Jacob rudely interrupts their silent conversation with his presence. Bella thinks about throwing him out of the window before she remembers they're on a ground floor. "Nice to meet y'all!"

Introductions are being made. Bella doesn't hear the name of Edward's wife. She knows the feeling climbing up the walls of her throat – green, ugly, garish and undeniably jealous. She wants to never see that woman again. In fact, she wants to throw her out the window right after Jacob. She doesn't, though; it would be both ineffectual and extremely impolite. Not while Edward is still staring at her like that, either way.

"We need to speak," she tells Edward, grabs his arm, and bodily pulls him out of Alice's hut. There's warm food still on the table and Bella, who has spent most of the day with walking, really regrets leaving it behind, but there are more important matters right now. Like the fact that the man she travelled through time for has apparently just gone and married a random villager.

"Bella, you've brought your husband?" he exclaims as soon as they are alone. It comes unexpected.

"Well, you've got a wife, sooo..." Bella attempts to argue. Edward interrupts her.

"You brought him through the stone circle? Do you know how- why did you-"

"I needed to come back!" It is her turn to interrupt him now, and her voice is strong and doesn't waver. There's a gleam in her eyes that speaks of genuine emotion. Edward looks at her the way people look at the sun – with admiration in their eyes, but also squinting and obviously uncomfortable. "I needed to apologize," she continues, quieter, and takes his hand. "And it... it's not important that you're married now, I suppose. But listen to my apology, please. I didn't want to run away, not really. It's okay that you're from five thousand B.C. or something, nobody is perfect. I just... I didn't want to run away." She looks down at where their hands are entwined. "I would have liked to stay here with you. But that's not possible anymore, is it?"

When she looks up at Edward, his face is hard and passive. She sighs and lets go of his hand, but he grabs her shoulder and pulls her close. One hand is gently placed on her face.

"Bella-" he begins. He doesn't come far, though: there's is a loud sound ripping through the air, Alice and the others come stumbling out of the hut and Edward lets go of her immediately, and the courtyard gate closes.

"The English!" someone yells. Frantic voices begin to sound, then there is metal clinging in the air, and then the terrible shriek of bullets piercing through bodies.

"Women to safety!" Edward cries and pushes Bella behind him. He grabs Jacob.

"You must save yourself too, you cannot-"

"I'll fight with you," Jacob says and he's much calmer than Bella has ever seen him and maybe she does love him a bit, she thinks then, but after a second she finds herself running, holding the hand of Alice, and meets with the other women of the village right in front of the castle's walls. They're not being let in, though, no matter how much they scream.

"Our old leader died a few years ago," Alice tells her, "and the castle has been in a bad condition ever since. But why nobody opens, I can't sa-" And then the gates do open, and two women keel over. Bella realizes the situation a second faster than everyone else, rushes forward and punches the suddenly appearing English soldier in the face. He is too surprised to defend himself, and she takes the musket from his hand and before she knows what's happened, has shot him in the head.

There is a terrible scream. Bella can't think straight. "Everyone back where you came from!" she shouts in the direction of the people. "The castle's been taken! It's not safe, you must flee!" The women run and Bella fires two more times at soldiers that come through the gates before she, too, throws the musket at a third soldier's head and begins to run. No bullet hits her, and it must be a miracle, but somehow she ends up with a little girl behind one of the huts, and after a while, the fight dies down.

She takes the girl's hand and steps out into the yard. There's heavy smoke settling in between the huts that still stand. They have brought cannons, Bella thinks: she smells their balls in the air. The ground is covered in bodies, uniformed and villagers alike. Bella's close to throwing up from the smell alone, but the image pushes her over the edge, and she kneels down. The girl shivers and begins to cry for her parents.

A figure steps in front of her. Bella looks up and tries to make out a face through the thick musket fog. The person falls to his knees, and a moment later she realizes it's Jacob.

"Jacob!" Bella cries out, "oh, thank God, you're alive, I thought you all-"

He keeps falling, with his face down. There's a wide, deep hole in his back, right over his heart. He is not breathing, Bella realizes.

She screams.

* * *

Bella doesn't know what happens next. She loses sight of the girl, somehow, and when she next sees anything but Jacob's dead body in her mind, she's in a cart full of people. Her hands are bond, she realizes, as are her feet. Her eyes are open wide. The sun is beginning to set far away, and the birds still aren't singing. They're on a road, a real road, and she can smell the fear of the people and the horses drawing the cart.

"Hey," she asks the person closest to her, an old, apparently blind woman with tearstreaks down her cheeks. "What is... where..."

The voice of the woman is a croak. "They have taken us. The English. They..."

"Bella?" a voice calls out. Bella turns and is unbelievably relieved to see Alice at the far end of the cart. She can't move well, but somehow they manage to meet up in the middle.

"Do you know where-" Bella begins, but Alice shakes her head.

"I was knocked out, and then I woke up here. I do not know anything of Edward or Jasper..."

It seems to be Bella's lucky day after all, because an English soldier who rides alongside the cart seems to have overheard them. "Edward Cullen? One of the Scottish rebels' leaders?" he asks, his eyebrows drawn up. Bella looks at him; he looks common, and young, like a teenager plucked from his parents' hearth, but Bella can't help but hate him for the slaughter they left behind. She nods, though.

"Do you know anything of him?" Her voice, too, is croaked, she realizes. It is the soldier's turn to nod.

"He will be questioned sharply. Not like you ladies, we'll treat you right, do not worry," he smiles, and Bella assumes it's meant to be reassuring. She grits her teeth silently. Alice sobs behind her.

They drive on for what seem to be hours until night truly falls and they stop. Bella sees that the horses are being watered; some soldiers are lying down to sleep on the ground. Army life has never been good, she muses, not in her time and not in the 17th century, but her thoughts are soon taken up by something else. The hostages are being guarded by one man – not the teenager from before, but a grown man, with wide shoulders and from what Bella can see in the firelight, a truly glorious mustache – and one man only. She crawls closer to Alice.

"We need to flee," she tells her in a whisper. "There is only one guard. We will be in the forest before they know it." There is one, not far; a sprint will get them there, Bella is certain of it. They merely need to get rid of the ropes. No problem – she has brought Jacob's Swiss army knife with her.

"You are mad," Alice tells her and turns away from her.

"Don't you want to rescue your brother?" Bella asks, nudging her. Alice tries to shh her but Bella keeps on. "Haven't you heard the soldier? They'll torture him. They are torturing him this very moment, Alice."

She looks at Bella as if she's going to regret her decision, and Bella knows that she has won.

"Fine," Alice hisses, "but we won't endanger the other hostages. Do you have a plan?"

Bella maneuvres herself until she can order Alice to find the knife in her skirt pockets. They manage to get rid of the ropes that hold them and stay undetected by the guards. "Run when I tell you to," Bella whispers, "I'll take care of the rest."

Most of the other soldiers are sleeping, she can see, but they're several feet away from them. They won't see shadows fleeing in the night if they manage not to make a sound. Bella robs closer to the guard. She can see him better in the light of the torch he is holding. He's balding, his mustache is indeed very enthusiastic, his skin is patchy and his eyes are beady little things. He looks like a schoolyard bully who has outgrown school, but not bullying. Bella lets her bare thigh dangle over the edge of the cart.

"Hey..." she says slowly. The guard turns to look at her. His eyes don't leave her thigh. "Can you help me? It's terrifyingly boring..." The guard comes closer until he is leaning over her. His breath is sour and his body's stench is almost unbearable, but Bella kisses him while the other hand takes his sword and draws the hilt over the back of his head with all the force she can muster. It surprises even Bella that he falls down to the ground with only a soft 'thud' and no other sound.

"Now," she whisper-yells to Alice. Together, they slide down the cart and onto the ground. Some of the other women must be seeing this – they are looking at them wide big eyes, after all – but none of them make so much as a sound. Alice says something to them, and one of them nods, wearing a thin smile. Bella doesn't understand what they're saying; the Scottish is too thick for her to understand.

But there is no time for long Goodbyes. It is only a matter of time until the soldiers see that their friend lies unconscious on the ground. Bella and Alice begin to run for the trees.

"Stop them!" an English voice yells when they are about halfway there. The English soldiers are illuminated by the light of their fire, but they won't be able to see them well.

"Only a little more," Bella tells Alice as bullets are hitting the ground right next to her feet. Tears are running down her cheeks, but she knows this is her only chance to do something. She hasn't come back through time and lost her husband to succumb to an English bullet now. Then, there is a tree right before her. Heavy boots are thundering over the ground behind them, but as soon as they are behind the treeline, they will have the advantage – they are slim and fast, much more so than heavy English soldiers, and their torches will not be of much use in the forest.

They run: Bella, Alice and about five soliders behind them, through the trees into the forest. When the fall of thunderous boots behind them gets quieter after a while – no wonder, the English have been marching and fighting the whole day while Bella and Alice rested in a cart – Bella points at a tall elm. They climb it, quick and well, and look down on the soldiers through the canopy of leaves not long after. The top of this elm is where, a few hours later, they experience the sunrise too, and as those first sunrays are climbing over the horizon, they climb back down.

The forest is silent around them. Bella grins at Alice. They must both look horrible, she notices, with twigs in their hair and sweaty faces, but she couldn't care less. She feels exhilarated, joyous: she has made her escape! And she will help Edward escape as well!

"Come," Alice says, "I know this forest, I know where we have to go."

There is a small brook not far from where they are, and they both sink down to drink as much as possible. Bella still hasn't stopped to think of what happened in the last twenty-four hours. Jacob's death – she will not waste one single thought on that, she thinks to herself, but of course, then she does. She has brought him to the past. It is her fault, in a way, that this stupidly brave man threw himself into the battle – without any idea how to fight or at least survive.

"It's the end," Alice says, and although Bella would usually be grateful for this opportunity to draw her out of these dark thoughts, it doesn't sound like Alice is going to talk about some particularly optimistic things. "Of the movement. We were one of the last bastions of independence. And if Edward lets any intelligence about the other patriot castles slip..." She heaves a heavy sigh. "With all of our men dead and our women captured by the English, Scotland will perish."

"Do not say such things," Bella insists. But then again, she knows Alice is right – her history knowledge may be narrow, but Scotland will lose this war. But who says you can't change history, anyways? "We must concentrate on saving Edward."

"And Jasper," Alice adds. Bella smiles at her. "They'll be going South, home, to their camp on the other side of the mountains."

Bella's eyes start to gleam. "They must cross a mountain range to get to the rest of their army?"

Alice nods. "It will be quite a feat, but if there is one thing I have learned, it is that the English won't give up until they have you safe between their teeth and can rip chunks of flesh out of you. They will cross these mountains, no matter how difficult."

"Then we shall make it even more difficult," Bella says with a grin.

They collect food to fill their own aching bellies before they start to follow the English. When they're fed and starting to be satisfied, they start talking – well, Alice starts talking. She tells Bella about her husband, Jasper, how they met – apparently, only weeks after Bella left, she started seeing her old childhood friend as something more – and finally about Edward.

"He waited for you," Alice says, "he waited for five years, but you did not return. He told us all that you searched for your home."

"I found it," Bella replies, quietly uncomfortable.

"He is my brother," Alice says, "well, something like that. I grew up with that boy. He didn't... he really..." She sighs. "He really liked you. It was hard to watch him after you left."

Her words make Bella's heart swell to a size she couldn't have imagined possible before. "I came back as soon as I could," Bella answers in lieu of a true apology. "It just took me... a bit longer than expected."

Alice shrugs. "He found a wife two years ago. She's a good girl. I haven't seen her in the cart, though..."

Bella thinks back to the bodies covering the ground back at the village and is suddenly ashamed of her petty jealousy from before. "I came back for Edward," she admits quietly. Alice takes her hand, and although the smile on her face is tired, it is a smile.

It takes them only a day to catch up with the main host. Two lithe women, it turns out, move much quicker than thousands of soldiers, their food train, generals, and hostages in carts at the very end. There is a camp of followers too, with the usual array of women and wine. Bella steals one of the prostitutes' clothing and her client's weapons and poses as a prostitute to talk to some of the camp followers; with this information, Alice and she plan how they will continue. They're sitting next to one of the tents of the camp followers. The hostage train is still some way back, so there is no chance anyone will recognize them; the main host, though, with the generals is at the front.

"Edward is with General Fitzmaurice," Bella is telling Alice while they're more or less hiding. "He is around there." She points at the camp. It has started to snow, here, at the foot of the mountains. "He's got a ton of guards, though, so it won't be easy. Jasper is with General Egerton, though. He's there." She points at the opposite side of the camp. "Less guards, but also more in the center of the host. They probably won't be able to run, so we must get in quick and get them out even quicker to have even the slightest chance."

Bella takes the machete she's stolen from the English soldier and her own Swiss knife while Alice takes the musket. Is it a suicide mission? Probably, Bella thinks, but if they succeed, it will be quite a magnificent apology. No better apology than saving someone's life. Alice slips into the soldier's stolen clothes and together, they cut her hair. She'll pass as a formidable soldier, Bella thinks; she just has to shut up or else they will hear the Scottish accent. Bella herself stays in the clothing of the prostitute. It should be able to get to the general's tent by pretending to have been ordered there.

The last part of their plan is a diversion, of course – Bella is not that suicidal. Jasper is held close to the gunpowder. Bella has given Alice her lighter and shown her how it works. It will be a risk, but it will be well worth it if it works – everyone will be distracted by such a giant explosion, rushing there and leaving the two women to save their men.

They have only one shot, and if that doesn't work, it will mean their lives and by extension, Edward's and Jasper's. When the moon is starting to wane and thick clouds drift in front of it, they stand, clasp each other hands and wish each other luck. There is a good chance only one of them succeeds.

It is pitch black when Bella begins to sneak into the encampment. A few guards are walking around and eyeing her warily. "I'm wanted by General Fitzmaurice," she lies to them and apparently that is believable enough to let her through without major problems. When she is close to his tent, she slows and watches the nightsky. No signs of an explosion – that means too many guards in the general's tent. Bella grits her teeth. Please, Alice, she thinks, and as if the other woman had heard her, a deafening bang rips apart the night. Suddenly, there is screaming and yelling everywhere around her, buckets of water begin to be carried; some water splashes on her, but Bella doesn't care. When she arrives at what is obviously the general's tent – large enough to house five families and a car, with his sigil in front of it – there is nobody in front of it. A head peeks out of it and speaks to a slim soldier who squeaks about an explosion of the gunpowder – everyone must help putting it out. The head sighs and disappears into the tent again.

She will never have a better chance, Bella realizes. When the boy has gone, darkness engulfs her and helps her to the tent's entrance. She waits there, one, two, three minutes, drawing deep and calming breaths, before she enters.

She stumbles into the general's tent and draws the opening close behind her, breathing heavily and rapidly. When Bella lifts her eyes, she regrets this decision immediately – the sight in front of her is not made for her eyes. There is Edward, each of his arms held up into the air, rope around his hands binding him to the tent's posts; his legs, too, are bond to small pegs hewn into the ground. He is almost naked, which is a sight Bella would have appreciated at any other moment, but the blood running down his chest ruins the sight. His chin rests on his breast and his breathing is the loudest thing in the tent.

"Who-" a deep voice begins, and Bella spots the general. He is standing by Edward's side. A whip is in his hands, long and black and terrifying, and Bella understands where the blood on Edward's chest comes from.

She doesn't notice the tears on her cheeks, but as the general steps forward, she raises her knife in a blind red anger.

To Be Continued


	3. Chapter 3

When she comes to, there are only two colors in Bella's world: red and black. There's red covering her hands, her dress, her skin, a dark and heady crimson. Around her, there is only black – trees and shadows, darkened by the night, surround her entirely. She is lying on the ground, she realizes, and then a third color enters her world: light. Starlight. The entire night-sky is covered in beautifully shining stars. She feels good and somehow light, as if all the heavy feelings were drained out of her and only those bright stars remained. Gorgeous. Her lips curl into a fond smile.

She doesn't know how long she's stared at the sky when her wits return to her. She is Bella. She is in the past, seventeen hundred something. Her husband - - her husband is gone. She remembers Alice by her side. They were running, in a forest, with trees by their sides just like this... and then there was a camp... a loud explosion... and Edward...

She tries to get to her feet, but her entire body seems to be aflame; her muscles ache, her joints are sore, and worst of all, her head feels like it's splitting in half. It's a bad ache, deep in her bones, almost unbearingly painful. Still she gets to her feet and, although she is reeling for a bit, looks around herself. Bella is in a forest, deep and dense, with thin trees looking like they've been burned down not long ago. She doesn't know this forest, but then again, all forests look the same in her opinion. She's not sure if she should call out, but the pain and the mounting dread in her guts make her a bit desperate, a bit foolish.

"Hello?" she says and notices her voice sounds horribly hoarse. Even when she clears her throat it doesn't become better. "Is anyone here?" Bella is starting to be scared. She tries to remember despite the maddening pain in her head. What happened? What happened to make her wake up alone in a strange forest? They searched for Edward. She entered the General's tent. And then... and then... her headache is getting worse. She closes her eyes, in pain.

"Bella?" asks a gentle voice. Bella jumps back. Alice suddenly stands in front of her, a leather skin in her hands. She is shaking, Bella notices, and then looks at her own hands. They are both shaking.

"Alice," she croaks. Alice doesn't waste a single second and pushes the skin into her hands.

"Drink," she orders. Bella complies. They stand in silence for a few moments while Bella drinks until she can't breathe anymore. The water is clear and fresh, and it helps her to focus her confusing thoughts.

"What happened," Bella asks, "there was Edward... and... and..." So much red. So much blood. And then, there was blood on her hands too. Bella stares at her hands. They are caked with dried blood. She feels a sob heaving its way up her throat. It is so much blood. Where did all this blood come from? Whose is it? Alice puts a hand on her upper arm, and Bella jerks back. She sobs again. "What happened, Alice?" she asks again, slightly more hysterical than before. "Where's Edward? Where's Edward? Whose blood, whose, what... where's Edward?!" Her voice grows to a shrill shriek. Alice tries to calm her down, runs her hand up and down Bella's arm, but Bella doesn't feel like being calm ever again. "Tell me!"

"Please be quiet!" Alice interrupts her, screaming. Only then does Bella notice that there are tears streaking her face. "Bella, be quiet. They're probably hunting for us." Her voice falls lower, but she's still visibly upset. "They can't find us. They'll kill us. Please be quiet..."

"Yes," Bella says, slow and careful, "yes. Quiet. What happened, Alice?" she insists. Alice looks straight at her, which feels like a good sign – if something terrible had happened, she wouldn't be able to look Bella in the eyes, right?

"I don't exactly know what happened to you, Bella. I found you both at the edge of the camp. You were talking to Edward, so fast I could not understand a word, and frankly, neither could Edward. You looked like a crazed animal. Then you just collapsed. We carried you as far as we could, but Edward, he's – he's really badly hurt. I went to fetch water."

Bella feels as if all the pain within her body has just vanished. She feels like crying from happiness. Edward is alive! He may be badly hurt, but he is alive! "And- Jasper?" she remembers asking. Alice's face clouds over immediately. She looks like she is going to start crying soon.

"Jasper is gone," she says, with a finality that scares Bella. "Come. I'll get you to Edward. He's sleeping, or so I think. He looks bad." Alice's eyes roam over Bella. "Frankly, so do you. Are you hurt?"

"Only a bit," Bella lies. She follows Alice around a few trees and through thick, wild bushes as high as a man. Within them, surrounded by leaves and bugs, Edward is lying on the ground. It's dark and Bella can't see much, but she falls to her knees immediately and strokes his hair. He's breathing shallowly but audibly. She thanks all the gods she knows while Alice, making the sign of the cross, kneels down next to her. Then Alice checks Bella for injuries. They don't find anything serious, some bruises and probably a bruised rib, but nothing that needs to be treated immediately. Then they sit by Edward's side. Sometimes, he groans in his sleep, and then Alice slips him some water, but otherwise all is quiet until the sun comes crawling over the horizon and brings with it birds, heralding the beginning of a new day. Edward wakes along with the birds. His gaze is unfocused and milky while he looks between Bella and Alice.

"Wha-" he begins, but his voice breaks. He coughs and it sounds horrible, so before they talk, Bella checks him again, the way she has done what feels like a lifetime ago, when she first came to this time and decided to stay because she could not let this man die. His body looks like a nightmare. There are cuts and gashes everywhere, bruises bleeding into each other, blue and red and yellow, and Bella is sure he has to have some internal bleeding. His skin feels too hot to the touch, too; there is a fever on the way, she knows it.

"I couldn't rescue Jasper," Alice admits, shivering. Her eyes lock with Edward's and the look on his face is one of pure agony. "I, I... there were too many... I got him out, but they overwhelmed us. He told me to run and leave him behind. He begged me while he was lying on the ground with two redcoats on his back." She dry-heaves. "The camp is gone. The English are panicking. They don't know what happened and the explosion made them uneasy. They're hurrying; they're past the mountains. If Jasper's still alive, we've lost him." She ends her short monologue with an expression that breaks Bella's heart. Alice tries to be strong, but there is a pain so deep within her; a pain so horrible that Bella has rarely ever felt something like this in her life. Alice is struggling not to let it show, tries to be strong for them, and Bella embraces her warmly. The two women cling to each other for a moment.

"We have to get him back," Edward says, sitting up weakly. Where he is not covered with dried blood or bruises, he is covered in rapidly cooling sweat. "These people – they are monsters. They are not human. We cannot leave him with monsters. Alice. Sister. You know we cannot."

Alice smiles at him sadly. "We cannot, but we must."

* * *

"I won't leave him. He is my brother-in-law. Alice loves him. I won't leave him..." Edward is babbling. His temperature has gotten worse the past two days, so much so they don't dare move him; so he just lies in the dirty underbrush of a disgusting forest. "I can't leave him. Alice loves him. She loves him..." he keeps mumbling. His eyes are closed, but Bella can see his pupils moving rapidly.

She is not red anymore. She washed the blood off her body in an nearby brook, rubbed at her skin until she was raw. Her skin was reddened thereafter, but not from the blood but from her rubbing, and it made her look ruddy rather than murderous, which was definitely an improvement. It's all gone now and it will not return. She washed her clothes too, although they are permanently stained a faint auburn color now, where the blood mingled with the brown of her skirt.

She realized, one day ago after a nightmare, that she murdered the General with a knife. With a knife! She could feel his blood pouring onto her bare hands. The memory makes her retch so she doesn't dwell on it. That makes two people she has murdered within a few days, three if you count poor, innocent Jacob, who followed her and died a hero's death for the deed. Bella is becoming a mass murderer. It makes her sick and horrifies her, but what horrifies her most is that she would do it all again to protect Edward; this pale man who mumbles about his brother-in-law in his fever dreams. Bella feels miserable about everything, and can't shake the feeling that it is all her fault. She should not have come back. If she had not come back, Jacob would still be alive, and that battle might have taken a different turn, because Edward would not have been preoccupied with her, and everything might still be fine.

Thus, she agrees with Edward. They have to follow the English and bring back Jasper. It is the least she can do, and if she needs to give her life for Jasper, then so be it. Only Alice is against it, and it is obvious that this pains her immensely. But Alice is soft and sweet; Bella is neither of these things. Especially not now, not with the blood of three men on her hands. She retches again as she remembers the general's eyes, imploring her to spare him, and desperate to live.

"Bella..." Edward's eyes fly open two seconds after he speaks Bella's name. "Bella..."  
She grips his hand. "It will all be fine." she tells him, smiling a thin smile. "I promise, Edward. I promise." He smiles weakly at her.

"You're beautiful," he tells her, his voice hazy and light, "you're still so beautiful. Don't leave me again, Bella. Bella.

She takes his hand into hers and kisses it reverently. "I won't," she lies.

* * *

She leaves two hours after that, as darkness descends, while Alice is collecting berries. She cannot go without explanation, though – they will be worried sick, no doubt. Maybe Alice will even attempt something stupid. But Bella wants Alice to stay with Edward and nurse him back to health, to make him forget the whip and the fever and Jasper. So she leaves a little folded piece of paper for Alice.

_Alice, _

_You are a true and good friend. I will atone for my mistakes. Do not look for me. Return to your village. Take care of Edward for me. _

_B. _

Bella is not sure if Alice will do as she is told, but she doesn't see any other possibility. If she tells Alice of her plan, Alice will stop her. With good reason: it is a breakneck and precipitous plan with little chances for success. But even these little chances, Bella argues to herself, are better than no chances, and so she will take them; but Alice would not understand. And so she steals away under the cover of the thick darkness that seems to be as much part of this forest as its trees and animals.

It takes Bella almost a full week to find the English train. As she quickly discovers, the security has been tightened, and it is near to impossible to get close to any of the high-profile hostages. She follows the army south, south, ever south. Weeks pass, then one full month and she realizes she is in London. It does not look like the London she is used to, but there's Big Ben and the House of Parliament, and even if Bella is American, she did enjoy some basic schooling, thank you very much. She finds out that a trial will be held for the leaders of the Scottish uprising. There is a Jasper on the list of those to be tried. If they find him guilty, well... Bella is aware of the punishment for treason. She can't let that happen. If this were another time, she might put all of her energy into finding the best defense attorney for Jasper; but she doubts that a trial for attempted treason in the eighteenth century will be fair in any way. The judgement has been made already, even though it has not been spoken yet. So she has to find another way. Could she break into jail? The traitors are kept in the Tower, she finds out, and although she has some confidence in her jail-breaking skills, she would rather not waste her life on a suicide mission.

So Bella bides her time, and waits. She talks to many of the Scottish people in the city, workers and merchants and fishermen from Glasgow or Edinburgh. They are not pleased about these happenings. She delves deeper into the belly of the city, finds those who would see Parliament burn and the King with it, who would install a Republic or a theocracy, who would grant full independence to Scotland. She finds all the people who might lend their ears for her cause, and collects them like little dolls around her, propped up and waiting to be played with, and when the day of the trial comes, she is finished with waiting. The trial is held publicly, of course. Every man, woman and child is supposed to see these men get their just trial, and afterwards, their punishment: the men will be hung, drawn and quartered. Bella attends the trial too – and she brings her beautiful collection with her.

A huge wooden platform has been erected in the middle of a beautiful square. Trees line it, thick old oaks that must have watched a thousand unjust trials. Maybe they have even served as a tree to hang traitors from. Jasper is on top of the platform, along with six men Bella doesn't recognize. There is one judge, one attorney and five lawyers. It does not take long. The men are found guilty after only ten minutes or less. The judge with a, to be fair, truly magnificent wig proclaims the punishment: death for all!

No, thinks Bella, she will not let this happen. "Freedom for Scotland!" she shouts, and then suddenly, the crowd is awash with yelling, screaming, the Scottish flag, and kilts. All of the supporters for the Scottish cause, whatever their motivations, are there, screaming, waving cloth and throwing eggs, demanding a fair trial and freedom for Scotland and a new Kingdom and whatever else they desire. Bella does not care about any of it. She cares only about Jasper on the stand, who looks bewildered and earnestly confused at this outpouring of support; she does not let him out of her sight. While the crowd riots, she sneaks off onto the platform, with her trusted Swiss army knife, frees Jasper and then, for good measure, the other men too, and then steals away with him, back into the crowd.

It would have all worked out perfectly, she thinks, they would have fled back to Scotland according to the brilliant escape plan Bella hatched a few days prior, but then in the middle of the crowd she runs into a man, looks up, and sees Edward's face peering down at her.

* * *

"What are you doing here?!" she yells at him, in order to be understood over the clamor of the crowd. "You're- what?"

"Is this the time?" Jasper asks, the bewilderment still very present on his expression. Around them, all hell is breaking loose. There is screaming and howling, and so many things are being thrown around, from rotten eggs to shoes. A tomato hits Jasper's chin and leaves an ugly red stain. Bella does not doubt that very soon, bullets will follow these eggs, shoes and tomatoes. She feels vaguely sorry that she has brought all these people into this mess, but then, they have all come here because of their own free will, decided to support a cause they believe in, isn't that right? If Bella nudged them in the right direction and organized everything a bit, then that doesn't automatically give her any responsibility over the lives of these people.

"It's not the time," she agrees with him, steps aside, and begins to make her way through the crowd, knowing that the two men will follow her. They make it out just in time, and while they're running down a narrow alleyway, Bella can hear shots ringing out behind them. She prays no-one will be hit, but somehow doesn't believe in it. But this is different than Jacob's death. These people knew what they were doing; Jacob was gullible and naive.

She shoves him out of her thoughts and stops at a crossroads to catch her breath. Edward catches up to her, then Jasper, and suddenly she feels like crying.

"Edward," she says, out of breath, and he surges forward to kiss her. It feels as if she has not kissed him in a million years or longer, and it's new and exciting agaim and sends hot shivers down her back. She desperately presses him against her and kisses him with everything she has to give.

"I'm still here, you know," Jasper says, obviously uncomfortable. "Could we postpone this for later, too, please?"

"You don't actually live in the moment, huh? It's always later this, later that, later ask Edward, later kiss Edward," Bella tells him, but she's grinning. They're both alive! No, all three of them, even better! "Why are you here, Edward? Why aren't you with Alice!" It is more of an accusation than a question. The last time she saw Edward, he was sick and weak and unable to so much as lift his little finger. Now he looks as pale as ever, but healthy and strong again. Perhaps traveling is good for a man like Edward? Who knows. After all, Bella is not actually a doctor, she's just studying to become one.

Edward looks at her with a serious, if concentrated expression, as if they were talking about a particularly vexing maths issue. "I followed you. It is right to save Jasper, and all these other men too. And... I needed to see you." He looks betrayed, in a way, and Bella doesn't understand why. Hasn't she just saved his brother-in-law? Why is he looking at her like this? She looks straight into his eyes, then she drops her gaze.

"What next, Bella?" Jasper asks, and Bella is grateful that he interrupts the uncomfortable silence. "They are going to look for us."

Bella smiles at him. "Do not worry, I have a good plan and it will work out fine. Let's go to the docks."

* * *

It does not, in the end, turn out to work out fine. Nothing works fine. For one, Bella did not know that there would be three of them when she hatched her plan. She originally planned to stow away on a merchant ship about to leave port in one hour, but the space she scooped out would not fit three grown adults. Second, Edward keeps looking at her with hurt in his eyes, and it makes her as much uncomfortable as it frustrates her. They need to talk about this, but they can't as they are rushing through the streets, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, and so her mood sours further with every step. Third, Edward has obviously not come prepared. Bella is wearing an appropriate dress, brown and gray and altogether boring, and it allows her to become a part of the background. For Jasper, she has brought an old dirty suit, the kind that is worn by thousands of men in this city during their daily struggle. But Edward.. everyone looks at Edward, tall Edward with his soft hair, piercing eyes, and worst of all, his goddamn kilt! Why is he wearing a kilt?! The police are looking for fugitives that support the Scottish cause, and here he is wearing a bright red kilt. They might just as well walk up to the police, present them their hands, and declare themselves arrested. And people look at him, and as expected, after two or three blocks, Bella gets the feeling that they are being followed. She walks faster, but the feeling only intensifies instead of lessening.

"Do you feel that too?" she asks the other two. Jasper nods, Edward stares straight ahead at the street.

"Someone's after us," Jasper replies. "Should we start running?"

Bella grits her teeth. On the one hand, running means they might get away; on the other, it will attract unwanted attention. She is torn, and then Edward takes her hand, albeit he seems to hesitate a moment before gripping it tightly. "Come," he says, breaks into a sprint, and Jasper follows them. Three men, wearing the tell-tale clothes of old-time policemen, break out of an alley and run after them. They make a lot of noise and draw considerate attention. "Stop!" one of them yells. "You are under arrest for conspiring to treason and public rioting!"

"We know!" Bella yells back. The policeman seems taken aback for a moment, but then just follows them more vigorously. Miraculously, they make their way down to the docks unharmed, but then the second problem appears – there's not enough space on the ship Bella has chosen for all three of them. Think fast, she tells herself, think fast.

"Jasper," she calls, "there, hide. I paid the captain a nice penny to hide in a barrel. They'll bring you straight to Edinburgh, and from there you can get home safe."

Jasper nods curtly. "And you?" he asks her. Bella throws a look behind her. In the distance, she can see policemen searching through the people at the port. She grits her teeth. But Edward's hand is warm around hers.

"We will get by."

Jasper embraces her, thanks her, embraces Edward, and says he will pray every day that they will see each other again. Then he is gone, and Bella and Edward run, once again.

* * *

Bella only finds the courage to begin whispering to Edward when the ship has set sail and one hour has passed. They are true stowaways now, Bella has not paid the captain to hide on this random ship, and they have to be quiet. If they're found, it is their end. But the waves are wild and stormy, the sailors are busy with keeping the ship under control, and Bella and Edward will not be overheard.

Bella tries to kiss him again, but Edward turns his face away. They are cramped together in a little space between some barrels filled with stinking fish. Bella admits that it's not the most romantic place in the world, but still... "What's wrong?" she asks.

Edward makes that horrible face again, as if she had betrayed him. "You left," he says, his voice low and raw with emotion. "You left after you promised you wouldn't leave again. I waited five years. Seven before I gave you up for good. And now, you just left me again, just ran off for another man."

Bella has the sense to flush red with shame, but she doesn't consider this as the catastrophe Edward tries to paint it as. Those were promises made to a feverish man; back then, she thought he would not even hear her, much less remember her words. She stares at the wooden ground. It rises and falls with the waves and it suddenly makes her nauseous.

"I had to do this alone," she finally, quietly, tells him. "I had to prove I'm not a murderer."

Edward wears a frown as he is looking at her. "But-"

Bella shakes her head. "I am. A murderer. I killed that soldier and the general who – who did those things to you. And Jacob." Oh, that is the worst murder of all. Bella can feel her voice quivering and breaking while she speaks. "I did not pull the trigger but I... I still did it. I brought him into this horrible time. He didn't even know! He can't fight. He was an idiot, but he was my idiot. I swore to protect him in my vows and I – I killed him."

Edward is quiet for a long while and Bella doesn't speak either. She feels like she has nothing else to say; but she does not truly know what Edward will say. Bella expects him to tell her she isn't a killer, that she is soft-hearted and kind and she is not responsible for Jacob's death. It would be what she would tell someone; what she would tell anyone but herself, because she can lie to other people but not to herself. When he does finally speak, his words surprise Bella.

"Come here," he tells her and she does. He's sitting with his legs spread on the ground and she scoots up so that she leans against him, her back against his chest. She can feel his warmth emanating from his body and oh, dear Lord, he is warm, so very, very warm. "We are all murderers, we are all killers. This harsh, cruel world leaves us no choice. A few of us are not, but the cleaner their hands, the bloodier ours become. People like you and me, Bella. If you had not killed that man, I would be dead now. Is that fair?"

Yes, Bella thinks. "I don't know," she says. Who can weigh one man's life for another's? But Edward is so immensely warm behind her, and when she turns around to look him into his eyes, she knows that she would kill another thousand men for this one single soul. Edward nods. "None of us know, only the Lord."

Bella smiles a lopsided grin. She has never been a believer, but just the fact that she knows Edward kind of makes her want to believe in something. In him. In goodness. In humanity, maybe. Or love. "I should have kept my promise," she admits. "I apologize."

Edward raises his eyebrows. "You know I will have to punish you for that." Bella laughs softly, but there's a gleam in his eyes that tells her this wasn't much of a joke at all. She smiles at him.

"You wanted to be with me? While I traveled south? It was a long and arduous road, I'll admit that. And lonely." Her hand strokes his arm. Edward stays stoic, but there's a slight blush appearing on his cheeks.

"I did," he replies curtly while she continues touching him. "I want to be with you for a long time."

Bella feels her heart beating wildly in her chest. "Me too," she admits, "but... are we... should we...? I mean. I just killed my husband, basically. It is a bit early to start something new." The smile she wears with these words is macabre and it does not please her, but how else to respond to such horrendous circumstances? "But I could get used to having you around. Killer boyfriend and girlfriend. We could be Bonnie and Clyde."

Edward looks at her, confused. "What do these words mean?" he asks. Bella's smile turns softer again.

* * *

The ship arrives at another port one hour later. Bella and Edward wait one more hour until they dare to come out of their hideout, in order to evade the sailors. Their strategy seems to be working; there is no-one around and the sky is pitch-black, dark with a cloudy night. No stars, no moon to guide their way over the wet wood, and they still try to be as quiet as possible. When there is solid stone beneath her feet again, Bella has the sudden urge to kiss it, but remembers that this is still the eighteenth century and that the stone ground is thus probably covered in shit, cholera and probably the plague too. Besides, there is someone much nicer to kiss by her side.

They steal through the port until they arrive at a well-lit building. It's probably a sailor's bar or something like that, Bella muses. There's light and noise coming from inside, mingling with the lapping of the ocean's waves outsides, and a rotting wooden sign hangs from above the door. There is no name on the sign, only a hand-drawn crude picture of a kraken. It's kind of funny and it makes Bella laugh, despite all the horrible things that have happened to her.

"Let's go in," she says; Edward obviously has his doubts, though.

"It's not safe for a woman," he says. Bella scoffs but then remembers that this is a different time; maybe this really is not a safe place for her. She grabs Edward's arm.

"Good thing I'm not alone, then," she says and they enter the bar.

Booming voices and the smell of wine and piss greet them the moment Edward opens the door. Bella makes a face, but Edward stays completely stoic. He taps on the shoulder of one of the closest sailors. The man turns around to face him. He has a gaunt and haggard face and looks as if he has not slept in days. There are red marks all over his face. Insect bites, most likely, or mayhaps pox marks, Bella cannot be sure.

"Quoi?" the man murmurs. A pool of silence builds around them, encapsulating Bella, Edward, the sailor and the men sitting closest to him. "Qu'est-ce vous voulez?" the sailor asks and Bella feels color drain from her face.

The ship brought them further away from home than either of them thought.


End file.
